IMF Announces Working Group to Reviewthe Fund's Financial Sector Work

The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Horst Köhler, today announced the formation of a Financial Sector Review Group to provide the IMF with an independent perspective on how the Fund should organize its financial sector and capital markets work.

The globalization of international finance and the central role of the financial sector in macroeconomic performance make it essential that the Fund further develop its expertise in these areas. This was emphasized by Mr. Köhler when he outlined his vision of the future role of the Fund on September 26, 2000 at the Joint Annual Meetings of the IMF and World Bank1, referring to the Fund as a center of competence for the stability of the international financial system. To this end he has decided to seek an independent perspective on how the Fund should organize its work in these areas.

The Group consists of: Mohamed El-Erian (Managing Director, Pacific Investment Management Company); Peter Fisher (Executive Vice President, Federal Reserve Bank of New York); Arminio Fraga (President, Central Bank of Brazil); John Lipsky (Chief Economist and Director of Research at Chase Securities Inc.); and Klaus Regling (Managing Director, Moore Capital Strategy Group). The Group will be chaired by Mr. Lipsky. They will be assisted in their work by Daniel Citrin of the IMF staff.

The terms of reference of the group are: first, to review and make recommendations about the financial sector and capital markets areas in which the Fund should focus its work; second, to review the relevance of various new and longstanding initiatives in these areas being undertaken at the Fund; third, to review and make recommendations about the organization of the Fund's financial sector and capital markets work; and fourth, to assess the human resource implications of its recommendations.

The Group will start its work with a visit to the Fund in the second week of October, and is expected to present its report by the end of the year.

1 Address by Horst Köhler, Chairman of the Executive Board and Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, to the Board of Governors of the Fund, Prague, September 26, 2000 (available on the IMF's external website at http://www.imf.org/external/np/speeches/2000/092600.htm).